I'm So Tired - Zzzzzzz

I sure need coffee right this minute! It's been a hectic period, what with watching the Australian Open to all hours of the night for the last week-and-a-half and getting up bleary-eyed in the mornings through lack of sleep, a hectic day and late night on Thursday, then out most of yesterday for Australia Day with still more Australian Open to come! It's always the same at this time of the year - and we are still getting over Christmas!

Yesterday, as I said in my last post, the kids were up at the crack of dawn zooming around the property on their bikes, bouncing on the trampoline and generally being kids. Harry's father was coming to pick him up at nine o'clock, so at eight I gave Harry some breakfast, told him to have a shower, put clean clothes on, sat him on the lounge with his Game Boy and gave him strict instructions not to move!

But while showering, Harry being Harry and being a kid who, for the life of him cannot resist "fiddling", he had my shower head to bits in no time (he had showered, I presumed, before he did that). I heard a bang and Harry yelled "ouch!", I asked if he was alright and he replied that the shower head had come off. I knew immediately what had happened, as his mother has had the same trouble. So I yelled back that it served him right!

When he came out of the bathroom, I asked him if he had wrecked my showerhead and he said, all innocent looking, it came off and fell to bits. Yeah right, Harry, shower heads do that, all by themselves, don't they? Anyway, I told Fred what happened and he thought it was a great joke, but he came and screwed it back together for me. Really, there was no harm done - but, that's the trouble with Harry!

His father came at nine to collect him and I warned Peter that Harry had had very little sleep so he could probably be more than a little bit cranky by lunch time, but that he'd had a great time. His father just laughed.

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After Harry left, I got to work and made the bacon and egg pie for the barbecue in the afternoon, tidied up, had a shower and then relaxed for an hour or so before going out. It was getting hot and promised to be the usual steamy, sticky day we get at this time of the year. Hopefully we would get some more rain in the afternoon. I had ideas of popping into the bottle shop at Greenbank Village to get some Bacardi Breezers because if I drink wine during the day, I get so sleepy and usually end up with a headache - so Bacardi Breezers are the refreshment of choice for barbecues. Unfortunately, when I got to the village, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see the bottle shop and came to the conclusion they had closed down, so back to Park Ridge and the bottle shop there, which I knew hadn't closed down, because I go there all the time. But Greenbank Village was on my way, whereas to get to Park Ridge, I had to double back...oh, never mind!

I arrived at Caroline and Bondy's and to my surprise, I was the first there. Usually I'm the last to arrive anywhere so this was a record breaking event. As I drove up their driveway, two dogs greeted me; their old dog, Scout, and a black long-legged, uncoordinated, galumphing, rather large puppy (who was named Bundy, after Bundaberg rum - Bundy Bond?).

Caroline told me that about six or eight weeks ago, they had driven a back way to avoid road work on their usual route to wherever they were going. They saw what they thought was a black piece of cloth in the middle of the road and as they got closer thought it was a cat, but realised it was a dog as they passed. Bondy reversed and Caroline opened her door, the pup raised its head and looked at them. When they got the poor thing home, it was in a pitiful state, skin and bones, flyblown in a wound on its ear and starving hungry, but with so many intestinal worms it couldn't keep anything down.

After visits to the vet, lots of loving care and good food, he's the picture of health and he is going to be a bii-ig boy! He is 80% wolfhound..the other 20%? Take your pick. As Caroline said, it was meant that they found him. He is one lucky puppy.

* * * * * * * *

The other invitees arrived and we got down to the serious business of champagne, nibbles and exclaiming about the storm we had the day before. My eldest daughter, Toni, had her videocam and showed us what she had video'd at their place. It was more like a cyclone, we could see the sheets of water swirling around as they fell from the clouds. The trees were thrashing in the wind, the noise was incredible and the rain was very wet. About five-and-a-half thousand homes lost power, trees were down and flash flooding was experienced by some poor unfortunates.

Then the talk got onto the cricket and the Australian Open, Bondy had the TV on in his games room and periodically people would wander up and watch for a little while, then wander back, have some more to nibble and drink or else jump in the pool with the kids.

About a couple of hours later, Bondy came down and announced, "Ok, the cricket's starting!" Call me slow, but I thought the cricket had started that morning. He was talking about home cricket. As Toni had Cooper to watch over and I had no intention of playing (although Caroline tried her hardest), we provided the audience participation part. Clapped politely when a run was scored and heckled loudly when a ball was dropped. I yelled at Flossy that she was too girly and she was chucking the ball rather than bowling it, so should be penalised. She gave me a very rude reply.

Toni yelled to Yog that his beer was getting warm and that he'd better drink it, he yelled back that he needed another one because it was empty. Cooper just yelled. I'm not sure whether it was encouragement or abuse. As you can see, the backyard cricket game is taken very seriously.

That out of everyone's systems, it was time to cook the lamb chops, sausages, steak and onions. The smells were tantalising and the rumble of stomachs deafening. There were salads including lom bok, pasta, cole slaw and Mediterrean; savoury eggs, a lovely pineapple, sour cream and coconut cream concoction which was to die for and crusty rolls, plus my pie. Plates were piled high, more champagne poured and for a while there was nothing heard but the sound of silence as everyone got stuck in.

Stomachs appeased and appetites sated, we carried on talking, joking and laughing. The smaller kids were in and out of the pool and the teenagers sat under the gazebo and talked about whatever it is that teenagers talk about. Elvis was singing, the weather was hot and it was the usual, laid back Australia Day barbecue.

I left about 6.30 pm, didn't worry about dinner and was in bed by 8 pm. I finished my book and at 8.20 turned the light out and knew no more until 5.30 this morning. That was my Australia Day 2007.

Ok, time to watch the tennis, its getting exciting...